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Timeline: Cleveland kidnappings

From their disappearance to their liberation, the suspects' arrest and the investigation, here is a look at key events in the kidnapping and rescue of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

Aug. 23, 2002 -- Michelle Knight, 21, is last seen at her cousin's house near West 106th Street and Lorain Avenue in Cleveland.

April 21, 2003 -- Amanda Berry is last seen after finishing her shift at a Burger King restaurant on the eve of her 17th birthday. Later that month, a man calls her family from Berry's cellphone, saying he has taken her and that she will be home in a few days.

January 2004-- Investigators visit the home of kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro at the request of child services to investigate a complaint that he left a child alone on a bus during the time he worked as a bus driver. They knock, but no one answers.

April 2, 2004-- Georgina DeJesus stops at a pay phone with a friend around 3:00 p.m. to ask the friend's mother if the two can sleep over at DeJesus' house. The answer is no. It is the last time she is seen for more than nine years.

March 2006 -- Miller dies of heart failure at 44, without ever knowing what happened to her daughter. Friends and family say Berry's disappearance caused Miller's health to deteriorate.

September 2006 -- Police arrest Mathew Hurayt, a 35-year-old registered sex offender, after receiving a tip that DeJesus’ body is buried in his garage. City workers break the cement floor and dig nearly five feet but turn up empty-handed. Hurayt is released among protests.

July 2007 -- Another girl, 14-year-old Ashley Summers, disappears from the same neighborhood after running away from a relative's home. Investigators and family hope the liberation of Berry, DeJesus and Knight will offer insight into her case.

November 2011 -- A neighbor reportedly calls the police after seeing a woman through an attic window at the Castro home. Cleveland police say they have no record of the call. They say neighbors have offered no tips during the extent of the women's captivity.

May/June 2012 -- Nina Samoylicz, who lives nearby, calls 911 after seeing a naked woman in the backyard at Castro's home. Again, police don't immediately see a record of the call. Samoylicz says she has also seen tarps covering the backyard.

May 5, 2013 -- The day before Berry escapes and all the women are freed, neighbor Lugo encounters Castro at the park walking with a little girl. Castro tells him it is his girlfriend's daughter.

May 6, 2013 -- After Ariel Castro leaves to eat at a local McDonald's, Berry screams for help through a crack in the front door. Neighbor Charles Ramsey comes to her aid and kicks open the door. They both call 911.

May 6 -- "I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," Berry tells dispatchers. "And I'm here. I'm free now." Police arrive to find DeJesus and Knight at the home as well.

May 6 -- Berry and the other women are taken to a local hospital, where Berry is reunited with her sister and poses for this photograph. The girl in the picture is said to be Berry's daughter, who also escaped captivity.

May 6 -- Ariel Castro and his two brothers, 54-year-old Pedro Castro and 50-year-old Onil Castro, are arrested in the case.

May 8 -- Prosecutors file rape and kidnapping charges against Ariel Castro, but clear his brothers, saying they had no knowledge of the women in the house.

May 9 -- Ariel Castro makes first court appearance, where a Cleveland Municipal Court judge ordered him held on $8 million bond -- $2 million bond on each of the four cases against him. Castro is charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

June 12 -- Ariel Castro's attorneys enter a not guilty plea on his behalf a week after he was indicted on 329 counts related to the case, including rape, kidnapping and aggravated murder.

July 9 - The three kidnapping survivors break their silence, releasing a video on YouTube offers their thanks to all those who have supported them since they were freed from captivity.

July 26 -- Ariel Castro, accused of raping and holding three women captive in Cleveland for close to a decade, has agreed to a plea deal that recommends he be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Castro is charged with 977 counts, including aggravated murder on suspicion of ending the pregnancy of one of his alleged captives.

August 1 -- Judge Michael Russo sentenced kidnapper Ariel Castro to life in prison plus 1,000 years, adding that Castro "will never be released from incarceration during the period of his remaining natural life for any reason." Michelle Knight, one Castro's victims, addressed the court and Castro at his sentencing by stating "I will live on. You will die a little every day."

September 3 -- Ariel Castro is found dead in his jail cell after apparently hanging himself with a bed sheet.

October 10 -- A state report is released stating that prison guards in Ohio falsified records and failed to properly complete their rounds on the day Ariel Castro died. The report also suggested that Mr. Castro may have asphyxiated himself during a sexual act, a claim that the coroner who completed the autopsy on Castro's body refutes.

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